judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, brutal tactics. russia bonds the city of kyiv with explosive drones, causing european leaders to boost support for ukraine in the form of weapons and military training. then power play. president xi jinping outlines his vision for china at the communist party congress as he seeks to solidify his grip on authority and his nation's role in the world. search-and-rescue. volunteer emergency response teams are stretched thin with more americans than ever hitting the outdoors. >> we have a he increase in

calls in the pandemic. they were pked from sunup to sundown and people were parked all over the place just to get out of the woods. all that -- judy: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ zoe: and with -- >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including -- >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind. yes, i am responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can.

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station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: ukraine's capital city is spending a tense night after russia unleashed a barrage of drones laden with explosives. authorities say at least four people were killed. it came as the european union approved nearly half a billion dollars for ukraine to buy more weapons. john yang reports on the day. john: people ran for shelter as drones descended on kyiv. the strikes tore through a building, leaving behind ash and debris. residents were in shock. >> it is murder, simply murder. there are no other words for it. we are so shaken, we don't even know what to do. john: the strikes were carried out by explosive suicide drones,

appearing to be iranian made. first responders recovered some fragments of the drones. a reference to a russian region hit the ukrainian schelling. at least five drones hit targets in kyiv including a residential building. police and soldiers on the ground shot at least 13 others out of the sky. president lome is in steep -- lome zelenskyy condemned the -- president zelenskyy condemned the attacks. >> they need terror to put pressure on the whole world. terrorists must be neutralized. john: despite the apparent iranian origin of the drones, officials denied claims of involvement. >> the islamic republic of iran is not on any side of the war between russia and ukraine. the islamic republic has not

exported any weapon to any side of the war. john: ukrainian officials still called for sanctions against iran, a position backed by several members of the european union. macfound.org -- e.u. officials say they were investigating whether iran was involved. in kyiv, residents did their best to carry on after the strikes. for the people of ukraine, attacks like these remain a daily horrific reality. for the pbs newshour, i am john yang. judy: later, the u.s. state department charged that iran is violating u.n. restrictions by supplying the drones to russia. meanwhile, a russian bomber crashed today in the cy of yaysk, in southern russia. at least four people were killed and 21 hurt. the plane hit a nine-story apartment building, and left several floors in flames. russian defense officials blamed the crash on a fire in one of the engines. in iran, authorities say the death toll has reached eight in

a weekend fire at a tehran prison. interrupted saturday where political prisoners are capped. iranian officials blame prisoners for the fire which came amid ongoing antigovernment protests. we will return to this later in the program. britain's new government has reversed nearly all of an economic package announced just weeks ago. today's decision scraps planned tax cuts and scales back a cap on energy prices. those measures were not paid for, and that had spooked financial markets. newly named treasury chief jeremy hunt formally announced the change. treasury chief hunt : it is a deeply held conservative value, a value that i share, that people should keep more of the money they earn. but at a time when markets are rightly demanding commitments to sustainable public finances, it is not right to borrow to fund this tax cut.

judy: prime minister liz truss issued the economic plan after taking office last month. this evening, shsaid she's sorry for the mistakes, but she said she means to continue as leader of the ruling conservative party. officials in pakistan report more than half of those who fled during recent floods in sindh province have now returned home. the region was inundated over the summer when unprecedented monsoon rains sent rivers overflowing. some 12 million people in sindh were affected. roughly 200,000 remain in aid camps. back in this country, documents show that former president trump's hotels charged the secret service up to $1200 a night during his time in office. a congressional committee obtained the records as it investigates claims that the "trump organization" profiteered from presidential security. e company denies the allegation. the nation's first trial over a state ban on gender-confirming

care for children has started in arkansas. the law bars such care for those under 18. doctors who violate the ban could lose their licenses. transgender activists say it discriminates against them, and violates free-speech rights. and on wall street, stocks stormed back from friday's losses, leading major indexes to rise from 2% to nearly 3.5%. the dow jones industrial average gained 551 pnts to close near 30,186. the nasdaq added 354 points. the s&p 500 jumped almost 95. still to come on the "newshour," we speak to the sister of an american held at the notorious iranian prison that caught fire this weekend. tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. playwright tom stoppard discusses his latest work chronicling a jewish family's history. plus, much more.

>> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: this weekend, china's president and communist party general secretary xi jinping gave what is viewed as his most significant speech of the year. he chronicled his achievements over the last decade and charted his vision for the country's future all as the communist , party appears set to hand him a third term and further cement his power. nick schifrin has the story. nick: during the first day of the national party congress, general secretary xi stressed the importance of improving the standard of living for chinese citizens and increasing self-reliance, especially on high end technology. he praised china's response to the covid pandemic which relies on massive, widespread lockdos. and xi emphasised the need to become more adept at deploying china's military on a regular basisand for their military to -- regular basis and for their

military to be prepared for major challenges. president xi: we must be mindful of potential dangers, be prepared to deal with the worst-case scenarios, and be ready to withstand the major challenges of high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms. nick: for more on all of this we turn to christopher johnson. he was previously a china analyst at the cia and now runs his own consulting company, china strategies group. welcome to the newshour. when he talks about headwinds, is he preparing china for a long-term confrontation with the united states? >> absolutely. i think he is telling us that he sees war with the united states as increasingly likely and we see two aspects of this in the speech he delivered to the congress. the first is that long-standing phraseology in these work reports were china judged peace and economic development not only were the dominant global trend but also an enduring one are gone from this report and

instead they have been replaced with what xi jinping called the spirit of struggle which is a throwback to the 1960's under mao zedong. he is showing us that the economy is moving toward what we might call a fortress economy that is less dependent on the global order and less dependent on the united states. he talks a lot about self-sufficiency in technology and that tells us he is hardening that system in preparation for that possible coming war with the united states. nick: he spent a lot of time on military modernization. not only a regional war or confrontation, but a more global one. >> we see him through the defense reforms he has been pushing in his second term and through the type of weapons systems they are developing, undergoing the massive expansion of their nuclear force. they tested this hypersonic light vehicle last year and those syems are designed to threaten the u.s. mainland and homeland and show that china is

ready for a global contingency with the united states if necessary. nick: let's take a listen to what xi said about taiwan. >> resolving the taiwan issue is a matter for the chinese, a matter that must be resolved by us chinese people. we will continue to strive for a peaceful unification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort. but we will never promise to renounce the use of force and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary. this is directed only at interference by outside forces and the few separatists who seek taiwan independence with their separatist activities. it is by no means targeted at taiwan compatriots. nick: outside forces and those who seek taiwan independence. christopher: he's telling the united states, stop messing around in the taiwan issue and abide more tightly to the one china policy that has governed the u.s. approach to taiwan since we reestablished up o-matic relations in the 1970's. he is saying to us as long as we

continue to have a one china policy in the united states and taiwan does not move towards independence, the chinese actually see a potential military conflict with taiwan as a crisis to be avoided rather than an opportunity to be seized. nick: when it comes to domestic issues, he did not ease any of the covid zero restrictions which continue to leave millions of chinese people in law down. he reared a rated his belief in a highly centralized economic control, even if that centralization leads to lower growth acrs the country. what does that say about his version of state control 10 years into his second term? christopher: it tells us he wants more state control and centralization whether it is in the economy, covid zero policy, or any other policy across the board. we are seeing a guy who bullies fundamentally in marxism, believes that communism is a system that can have its own successes internationally, and can defeat the united states and

capitalism in the longer-term. nick: the u.s. imposed its sweeping export controls, trying to prevent china from purchasing high-end technology with any kind of u.s. factors inside that technology. xi jinping today, as you have been discussing, talked about self reliance. can those export controls do what they are designed to do, which is set back china's military and keep the u.s. technological advantage? christopher: it can slow them down and that is what the objective of the policies are. the key for not only the united states government, but our companies is if china gets there on its own -- it is not literal rocket science. there are plenty of people who know how to do it. china will eventually gain this capability and when they do, will it be a situation where our companies are left on the outside looking in while other semiconducr companies sell to china? nick: there is a risk in trying

to constrain chinese growth in u.s. companies. christopher: the risk that you run is what if we are partially successful but they double and triple down in all these other areas of artificial intelligen, quantum computing, and so on? if they are successful and wind up in front of us, where the race is very much at hand, we could be behind them. nick: xi jinping is the most powerful chinese leader since mao. has he taken even more steps to trand erase the most powerful chinese leader that was between xi and mao, and his report? christopher: the foreign policy was that china should keep a low profile and not raise its head internationally. xi jinping says china aeady is a superpower and it is time for her to start acting like one on the global stage. that is an effort to create a direct lie between mao zedong and himself as china's unparalleled top leader. nick: that is what we expect. next weekend, xi jinping being

granted that third term. thank you very much. christopher: my pleasure. judy: for a month now, people in iran have been protesting against the regime after a young woman died in police custody. over the weekend, a large fire erupted inside a prison facility in tehran known for jailing political prisoners. at least eight people are believed to be dead. amna nawaz has more. amna: the protest movement sweeping iran after the death of mahsa amini spread to the notorious evin prison in tehran. on saturday, videos spread on social media of the prison ablaze, flames and smoke risg from parts of the compound. gunshots can be heard on some clips. tehran's governor later blamed a prisoner riot. activists said prisoners were chanting anti-regime slogans, and guards launched a crackdown. later that evening, protesters

outside were seen marching to the prison chanting 'death to the dictator'. american citizen emad sharghi is currently detained inside evin prison. his sister who has been campaigning for his release, joins us tonight. welcome >> -- welcome. >> thank you for having me. amna: as the fires were burning and the riots were unfolding, your brother was on side -- inside. what did he tell you? >> i was in d.c. at an event for hostages who had come home so i thought he was calling at that time to see how the event went, but when he called, it was quite loud in the background. and just said, you know, hi, i want you to know that i am ok. and i said, what is going on? what's all the noises in the background?

he said it's just very chaotic here. and that is all he said. his voice was incredibly heavy and he said we are just staying in our room. i said, ok. he said, tell everyone i love them. and i hope to talk to you soon. it really wasn't what he said. it was what i could hear in the background. it sounded like he was in the middle of a riot. i could hear people shouting and i could hear what i now know are gunshots because i only found out later that they had been riots in that part of the prison where he is. judy: what was it like for you when you are seeing these videos, fires burning, knowing your brother is inside? >> i try to be a very optimistic person but i thought to myself that that could be the last time i hear from him. i imagine him in a smoke-filled room unable to get out. all the worst possible thoughts came to my head and i have the

responsibility of knowing i was the last person who spoke to him. it was terrifying. judy: your brother has been there since 2018. he was convicted in a sham trial on national security charges. what can you tell us about the negotiations to bring him back home? what do u.s. officials tell you? >> they are trying to do their best to get them out. he should have been out six months ago. he should have been out three months ago and hes still there. i think what we learned this weekend is that time is an illusion. at any moment, something can happen to him and he can die. >> what can you tell us about how he is? >> he called finally yesterday morning and it was a minute long call. he just said i am alive and i am fine. don't worry. i did not ask him anything and he did not offer any details. the calls are short and monitored. his voice was hoarse and he was

coughing and i am putting two and two together, thinking he has probably inhaled a lot of smoke from the fires because the fires are near the ward where he is capped. he said that they moved him late at night to section 2a a way from the fire. amna: we have seen them have some success bringing home people who have been wrongfully detained. he was released from medical treatment from iran. have you spoken with them directly? >> we have not spoken to president biden. we made several requests to speak with him because i think it is important to talk about the case and we understand and our frustrations and the need forrgency i think is very important for the president to know. we hope to hear from him to have the opportunity to meet with him.

>> do you believe they are doing everything they can to bring him home? they don't understand when we say that you need to do this quickly. i believe they think the time is on our side and that they can just wait. i do not believe they understand how urgent it is to get them home. >> this moment in time, we are seeing historic protests across the country. talks are playing out between iran and the u.s. are you worried all of this impacts your brother's future? >> of course i am. his started out to get attention for this humanitarian issue around our innocent american hostages and it is even tougher now to get our voices heard and urge action on this very quickly. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. ♪

judy: across the nation, search-and-rescue teams are mostly made up of a patchwork of volunteers, often overseen by local sheriffs departments, but many of these teams are now struggling to keep up has more americans than ever are hitting the outdoors. special correspondent christopher reports -- christopher booker rorts from colorado. christopher high atop colorado's : rocky mountains is where 46-year old jennifer staufer finds peace. >> being outside is just such a mental like clarifying relief for me. like, it's just a place where i go to kind of reconnect with what fundamentally matters to me. christopher: raised in colorado, staufer began climbing more than two decades ago, and by july of 2015, she had made it to the summit of more than 40 of the state's mountains with elevaon above 14,000 feet. they're collectively known as the 14ers.

>> i was 10 weeks pregnant at the time. my doctor had cleared me to hike to i was 20 weeks pregnant and i was kind of like, you said, this was on i was on a mission to check off some more 14ers before i had a kid in my life. christopher: that mission brought her and her climbing partner adam to the summit of crestone peak in southern colorado, but shortly after this photo was taken as staufer was making her descent, she slipped on a patch of ice, and fell headfirst down the mountain, tumbling 250 feet before coming to a stop on these rocks. what was the first thing on your mind? >> the first thing is going through my mind is, you know, i'm ten weeks pregnant. i'm probably not pregnant anymore. i think at one point in time i even started preparing adam with, like, what to tell my family if i don't make it home. christopher: they were able to get out a call to 911, dispatching custer county search and rescue. about seven hours later, this team of 14 volunteers arrived by helicopter with some having to climb more than 1500 feet to reach staufer. >> i did have a collapsed right lung. i had three broken ribs in my back back there. i had pelvic fractures. this kneecap was completely shatterein half. and then i had broken my foot in a couple of different places. christopher: but unbelievably, you were still pregnant?

>> i was still pregnant standup: -- pregnant. yes. christopher: while staufer's story is harrowing, it was just one rescue in a state where 3000 people call for search and rescue every year, a number that has only been increasing in recent years, as more and more people are drawn to the colorado wilderness. >> we have to be everywhere all at once. christopher: jeff sparhawk runs colorado search and rescue, a nonprofit organization that represents the roughly 50 search and rescue teams across the state. he says, over the last few years, some of these teams have experienced a record number of calls. >> we got a huge increase in calls over the pandemic. our trailheads were packed from sunup to sundown. people were parked all over the place just to get out in the woods. now there are so many more people who have moved to colorado and don't have experience in our mountains, don't have experience in our rivers, don't have experience in our backcountry. >> by far the majority of our , missions get back to somkind of unpreparedness, after -- unpreparedness. christopher: after retiring in

2015, 62 year-old jim mccoy began working for a search and rescue team in park county, colorado. this sprawling rural community southwest of denver is about the size of delaware. >> park county, which is pretty large, 2200 square miles, has about 80% public land. we do as a team, about 60 rescues a year . did everybody sign in? christopher: on a recent saturday morning, much of mccoy's 38-person team was here on one of seven field trainings members must complete every year. >> the purpose of today's exercise was for us to practice a high angle rescue so we had a climber who was stranded on a vertical face and injured and we had to rescue them. >> downslope. -- down, slow. >> it's probably about the most difficult rescue we do. the most technical thing we do probably requires about the most gear of anything that we do. christopher: what do you think people don't understand about what you do? >> one of the biggest misconceptions about us is that we get paid. everyone on the team is a volunteer, the entire team.

each individual has to provide their own gear and their own gas. christopher: one study found that the average search and rescue volunteer in colorado spends more than $1500 a year. and this is how it is throughout much of the country. >> almost 99.9% of all search and rescue in the united states is done by volunteers, local stewards of their communities. they pay for their own equipment. they pay for their own training. christopher: chris boyer is the executive director of the national association for search and rescue. he says that even national parks rely on volunteers in some cases. >> a few national parks have specialty teams like in yosemite. parks that have specialty environments usually have a half dozen or so specialty rangers, but they still all rely on volunteers to do the heavy lifting. i think overall, at a nationwide level, we have a system that is broke. christopher: and in colorado, a state where outdoor recreation is a multi-billion dollar industry, it's especially glaring.

>> we need to figure out a way that the outdoor recreation industry, the tourism industry, all of those who are benefiting from this are to some degree supporting it. in some weird way, you can look at us as the safety net or maybe kind of an insurance policy fo this entire industry. and we see this is a non-sustainable situation. christopher: is that the way that you frame it, that this is not sustainable? >> long term, it's definitely not. here in boulder county, we have somewhere north of 200 calls, maybe 300 calls a year. and so that's -- that's really tough for for volunteers. right. how do you hold down a job? how do you maintain a family fe? >> did not get a second nap today. i have two young kids. i have a three and a half year old and a ten month old. so unless they're in daycare for the day, i'm almost guaranteed to get a call while i'm trying to do something with them. christopher: 39-year-old page weil has spent a decade with colorado's rocky mountain rescue

group in boulder, one of the state's busiest teams. he also works as a full-time consulting engineer. on a recent sunday, weil got a call. >> someone is hurt right now. christopher: within a few minutes, he and his wife jess and their two kids all were racing toward a hiking a trail just outside of downtown boulder. >> all units responding. >> we're responding to an eighties female who fell and hit her head. it sounds like she's injured and cannot walk so we will probably have to carry her out. i sort of made it a priority of my life. once i make that decision to respond, it's everything's out the window. i text my wife, i let her know i -- her know. i will cancel meetgs if i have them scheduled for work, or i'll let my supervisoknow. and then immediately my mind is sort of in rescue mode. >> i realized like a few years into it, how much of a commitment it was for me as a partner, as a spouse, as a mom.

like, it is a sacrifice. christopher: like many search and rescue teams across the nation, the rocky mountain rescue group relies heavily upon donations to do this work. they also receive some state and local funding. >> we're a team of 80 volunteer, approximately 80 volunteer our annual operating budget for our group is around $80,000. for the whole team for the entire year. >> help protect our state with a $29 keep colorado wild pass. christopher: starting in 2023, colorado residents will be asked to voluntarily buy a parks pass when they register their cars. officials here say the legislation, which passed last year, could generate about $2.5 million in additional funding for search and rescue teams. other states like new hampshire are trying a more controversial approach billing some , individuals who are rescued. >> we do bill, when there is negligence, when it's determined negligence that was involved. over the past decade or so, we

average about only 13 or 14 billed missions a year. christopher: james kneeland is a conservation officer with new hampshire fish and game, which runs search and rescue operations in the state. >> one thing i think it has helped with is people are trying to get themselves better prepared. if they know they have the if they know they have the potential for getting billed. i think they're doing a little bit of research on their hike, whher it's getting the right equipment or or studying, can i do this in a day? >> if people think they are going to be charged, they will make it more difficult for us, more dangerous for us, but in general, colorado looks at this as we take care of the folks who come here. christopher: for that, jennifer staufer remains forever grateful. her son, morgan, is now seven years old and shares his mom's love of the mountains. >> morgan just climbed his first 13er this summer, and he was really blessed to be able to do so with jeff, who was one of the guys who was on he my rescue and who you know, he helped carry the litter and helped get me out . christopher: staufer says she's still climbing and hopes to one day return to the same mountain where she almost lost her life.

>> i would love to go back and finish that climb because i feel like it's important to me to get it done under my own power and to kind of put it behind me. christopher: for the pbs newshour, i'm christopher booker in colorado. judy: election day is three weeks from tomorrow, meaning this is a time when candidates and campaigns are having to focus more than ever on money. they recently facea federal deadline to report their campaign spending and fundraising through september. lisa desjardins is here to walk us through how finances are playing in this year's elections. hello, lisa. compared to other years, how much of a factor is money this year? lisa: we are seeing a storm of campaign spending. let's look at the comparative numbers here. you go back to 2018, the last midterm election, total spending was his cell also very high.

$5.7 billion. where do we think we will end up this year? this estimate says more than $9.3 billion, perching twice that much in just four years. notably, this year, outside spending groups, super pac's, all those kind of ideas, they are contributing more than 1.3 billion, a billion-dollar force from folks who are not candidates and not political parties. i will say one thing we are noticing this year is that democratic candidates seem to be raising more than republican candidates, the candidates themselves. republicans have an advantage and are raising more money with these outside groups. judy: we don't have to tell so much about who they are. lisa: they have different requirements. judy: how much difference does it make on the ground when one party gives so much and another gives a different amount? lisa: democrats especially are feeling that pressure in the senate races right now. i want to talk about a senate

group. the senate leadership fund is a group connected to senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. it is connected to a dark monday group as well. i want to look at a map of where that group has been spending money on ads and senate races. those are races they believe that influx of millions of dollars they are spending can move the race one way or another. let's look the ads they have been putting on air. do you feel safe? this is an ad you see in wisconsin. this is against the democratic candidate. dark images, negative as, so to speak. we spoke to someone from open secrets about super pac's and dark money in this is what he told us -- and this is what he told us. >> both groups are raising millions of dollars from the start many groups but right now, we are seeing, especially in the senate the senate leadership , fund is able to outspend the

democratic -- their democratic counterparts and and we saw this coming over the course of the cycle. >> they felt they had so much momentum through the summer and now this change in spending is affecting them, they say. they are seeing a change in who is paying for this. we don't know who all the donors are. some billionaires like peter teal, the well-known west coast investment guru died, he has been spending millions of his own dollars including in ohio. his candidates have won in those primaries. democrats have their own billionaires. george paris put in over $100 million last year and what we are seeing here is small donors, regular folks, they are tapped out. they have nothing more to donate. billionaires are continuing to give and they are controlling a lot of the spending right now.

judy: and a lot of that is going to republicans. lisa: yes, at this moment. judy: that was mostly about the senate and house federal races but you have also been looking at state and local races and the money they are raising. lisa: this is important because as much as we are talking about billions for control of congress, we are seeing historic numbers for many of the races across the united states. we have 46 state legislatures up on the ballot this year. let's look at what we know about this. record spending for control of those date legislatures by both parties across the country and just secretary of state races alone, we know that is such an important race right now as we talk about our democracy. those candidates have raised $50 million which is an unheard of figure for that kind of what used to be seen as a government process. just one example, the arizona secretary of state racing which we have a known election denier

running. that race alone right now is well over $10 million and that could be even more. i know it is millions, not billions. it is easy to lose track. that is a massive amount of money. what is happening is those election deniers, so-called election deniers on the ballot, when we talk to the brennan center for justice, they say they are having an effect on just bringing in money from both sides. here is an wiener from the brennan center. dan:: those candidates bring in a lot of money because the stakes are high for democracy in those elections, but you know, i think this is the wave of the future that we will see a lot more money and a lot more correspondent ideology in elections that were previously considered somewhat sleepy. lisa: this is a shift he is saying in how elections work. this money is obviously very important. voters are going to be getting the fx, seeing ads, but it's not the only thing.

both sides, sources are telling me, they think the candidates themselves are just as important right now but it's sort of like a nuclear buildup on both sides that ctainly voters will feel. judy: right in these final weeks when people are paying more attention to these races. thank you. ♪ judy: speaking of politics, more than two million americans have already cast their ballots in the midterm elections, and a new poll shows some good signs for the gop in the final weeks. 49% of likely voters say they plan to vote for a republican for congress, compared with 45 % who say they plan to vote for a democrat. that's a five-point swing toward republicans compared with the same new york times and siena college poll conducted last month.

here to analyze this and more are our politics monday team. amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter. and tamara keith of npr. hello to both of you. are you getting nervous? it is three wes away. >> favorite day of the year, election day. judy: always. bigger than birthdays. as you just saw, amy, seeing a shift towards the republicans had not only that, one of the questions in the poll asks people what is your top issue? in july, 36% of respondents said it was the economy. now, it is 44%. that is an eight percentage point shift. what should we take away from that? amy: with the august caveat, this is one poll, etc., this is what we are hearing as well when i talk to campaigns and strategists, that the bump democrats felt over the summer,

i think it was a combination of the decision on roe v. wade, the so-called dobbs decision, the fact that gas prices were going down a little bit, the intense focus on donald trump, mar-a-lago, january 6, gave a really big used to democrats. it increased enthusiasm and took the focus off the economy for a little while. but folks who are now tuning in, which there are a lot of voters who have not been paying attention over the summer, they are tuning in now, three weeks into the election. it should not be surprising when we have 40 year high inflation is at the issue of the economy is driving voters. the other thing you will notice in that member is that it is not that the democrats have lost ground, it's just that they have not gained ground. they were at 45% earlier now -- now, they are at 45%, something like that. basically, what i am hearing from sources in the campaigns is

that democrats may have maxed out that enthusiasm gap. they got over the issue of abortion and growing beyond that is going to be the challenge. judy: this focused him on the economy and it comes at president biden is out on the campaign trail several times a week. i want to play for everyone, this is something that senator bernie sanders has said in the last few days about what democrats ought to be doing. i am going to come to you after this. >> democrats have got to fight to make sure that it is women who control their own bodies, not the government. this is a very important issue but i don't belve it can be the only issue. it goes without saying that we have to focus on the economy and demand that we have a government that works for all of us and not just wealthy campaign contributors. > you have senator sanders saying don't just go and talk about abortion. address what is on people's minds.

>> i don't know what campaign senator sanders is watching because the campaign that i am seeing how in the field, traveling this last week with president biden, looking at campaign ads, what you have is their primary negative message about republican candidates in a lot of these races is that they are against choice, that they could, you know, restrict abortion, that they want a national ban on abortion. that is the leading negative message from democrats in a lot of races. however, they have a positive message and their positive message is we just passed the inflation reduction act. they say that they are focused on kitchen table issues that americans care about that the price of prescription drugs and the cost of energy. democrats, president biden -- he is giving a speech tomorrow about abortion but i just spent

four days with him and i don't think he publicly even mentioned the issue. it was all about the economy again and again and again. judy: amy, he's talking about the economy but what is coming across? amy: i was talking to a democratic pollster today who said the policies themselves, if you break it out and ask about the specifics in these pieces of legislation that democrats have passed, specifically the inflation reduction act, they are popular. it's like obamacare. individual pieces of obamacare are popular but overall, voters still give low ratings to the president and to democrats on who do you trust on inflation and who do you trust on the economy which is why you are seeing as many ads, especially in these swing districts, where democrats are talking about what republicans would do if they got in charge so we are hearing things about social security, and in the case of arizona,

republican candidate wanting to privatize social security. senator sanders talked about trying to make republicans the party of special interests and big business. we are the party in charge, we are going to get the blame when things are going wrong. it's hard to make economies better if they don't think it. the risk with democrats is the risk of change is more dangerous than sticking with the status quo that you are disappointed in. >> on a couple of occasions, he was asked by reporters economic questions and he was a bit dismissive. he said the economy is really strong. when asked if he had any concerns about the economy. i asked him about gas prices in southern california which are around seven dollars a gallon and he said gas prices are always high in california. they are not always that high. judy: talking about it but

making the case is something else. something we have seen in the last few days, former president trump, on his -- one of his favorite social media platforms, made this statement after he looked at a recent poll about where american jewish voters are. his support among american was voters is very low. he said no president has done more for israel than i have. somewhat surprisingly, our wonderful evangelicals are far more appreciive of this than people of the jewish faith, especially those living in the u.s. u.s. jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in israel before it is too late! >> this is not the first time that he has accused american jews of disloyalty or of tiptoeing around the anti-semitic trope of dual loyalty, that they should be loyal to israel or that they are loyal to israel. president trump, former president trump, he is someone

who feels like everyone should support him if he has ever done anything for them. >> it is transactional. his politics have always been transactional. i have done something for you, i don't understand why this is a problem for you. he also touches into the issue of the fact that, you know, he does believe that he deserves support from voters simply because he has delivered on one piece of policy. judy: is this the kind of thing that could change or affect the vote? >> with so many things that donald trump says, much of the reason he does it is he wants us to talk about him and make sure -- he wants to still be in the conversation. for so many voters, they hear this, they choose to not process it and leave it be or it

reinforces feelings they already have about this president. judy: and here we are talking about it. amy walter, tamera keith, see you next monday. ♪ judy: in a new broadway play, one of the world's greatest writers grapples with his own hitting past and its implications for our time. jeffrey brown talks with playwright sir tom stoppard for our arts and culture series. >> you are not looking. >> the year is 1899, vienna. >> it is a beautiful style, darling. >> the members of the next plan, an assimilated jewish family in

which a confused grandchild can put a star of david atop a christmas tree, feel themselves part of a society. over the coming years and generations, they will learn how wrong they are. >> to a gentile, i am a jew. there is not a gentile anywhere who at one moment or another has not thought "jew." >> nearly every family member will be killed as a result of the holocaust. it is the devastating story of a family tree cut down one that's , impacting audiences and playwright tom stoppard himself in ways he hadn't expected. >> i came out very dry-eyed and quite happy with the show. a woman approached me and she was drenched in tears. and i suddenly started crying

with her. i ju switched straight into her state of mind. and actually, this is new with me. i've shed more tears over watching "leopoldstadt" than the rest of my work put together. >> stoppard, now 85 and often described as the greatest living english playwright, has written some 37 plays and earned four tony awards. >> that woman is a woman. >> he also won an oscar for the movie shakespeare in love. a kind of coming to turns with what -- terms with what he saw as the charmed life. we talked recently at a famed broadway restaurant. >> by the time i was an english schoolboy, english journalist, english playwright, the idea of

having a charmed life was familiar to me, until it turned and bit me because finally, i thought rebuked by the attitude. >> he was born in 1930 -- tom stoppard, the english playwright, was born tomas straussler in 1937 in czechoslovakia. his parents, jewish on both sides, took him and his brother to singapore to escape the nazi invasion. his father was killed by the japanese. and his mother fled again, taking her sons to india, where she later married an englishman. at age eight, young tom was brought to england, his jewish past and family left behind. was it a question of knowing? or a suppressed past, a lack of desire to know about it, or u -- >> all of the above. my mother was very relieved to have found a sanctuary for herself and her two sons when the war ended. she didn't want to look back, and she never spoke about the

past, except just very casually, occasionally. and i also have to own up to not really having sufficient curiosity about it, partly because my mother didn't want to talk about it. >> there are thousands leaving every month. the office of jewish immigration cannot get rid of the jews is fast enough. >> -- jews fast enough. >> "leopoldstadt" is the result of years of reckoning with a history stoppard only learned about in full in his 50's, when a czech relativeold him that all four of his jewish grandparents and three of his mother's sisters had been murdered by the nazis. the play's family is not his, but their experiences would have been similar. >> by a miracle, he kept the business going through war, revolution and now anschluss. , and saved it for jacob. why give it all away now? >> the nazis will take it. >> the nazis do take it, all of

it, the business, the home and most of their lives. and then he gives us a final scene after the war in 1955. >> not much family. a new yorker, austrian, and a clean young englishman. >> three survivors had come to the new country at age eight and was oblivious to the holocaust horror and the toll on his own family. >> i'm sorry you had a rotten more. >> a rotten war? >> yes, i'm sorry. >> a stand-in for stoppard himself. >> the boy in the play is rebuked, in the words, you live as if without history. and that was rather me. >> the specific line is "you live as if without history, as if you throw no shadow behind you." that was you? >> yes. yes. and i guess this play, "leopoldstadt," is the shadow behind me.

>> the play also, he knows, has a new relevance and force to it. jews will not replace us. >> as overt anti-semitism has been on the rise around the globe. >> there is a line in the play where a young man says to a jewish survivor, he says it can't happen again and it feels like such a clunky line, plucked from the clunking us of how wrong people have been in the past. -- the clunkiness of how wrong people have been in the past. but it's inescapable now. it's certainly resonating. and all kinds of things are now happening in america, as in europe, which you would not have anticipated a generation ago, half a generation ago. >> after "leopoldstadt" premiered in london just before the pandemic began, stoppard caused tremors in the theater world by suggesting this could

be his final play. now, as it stuns audiences on broadway, he's resolved to continue. >> i don't know what the thing is that i'm gonna be turned on by and it could be anything. and that is my situation as i sit here talking to you, jeff. it could be anything. and i would like get back to my desk and write another play. jeff: "leopoldstadt" is scheduled to run through march 12. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown on broadway. ♪ judy: a new film on pbs focuses on another group that has been the target of discrimination here in the u.s. later this evening "rising against asian hate: one day in march," explains how the killing of six women in atlanta in march 2021 became a watershed moment

in addressing violence against asians and pacific islanders. the domentary chronicles the troubling escalation of hate and spotlights the movement to turn grief and anger into action. >> the shootings in atlanta reviewed that prosecuting hate crimes presents uque challenges compared to other targeted groups. >> there were nooses found in the workplace. we know what that means. it was geared towards intimidating black workers. the jewish community, there is the nazi symbol. towards asian-american community, we don't have one symbol or multiple symbols that really solidify the ideology against asian americans so it makes it a little bit tougher so you have to really look to find evidence of that motive. jeff: the film "rising against

, asian hate," premieres at 9:00 p.m. eastern tonight on pbs. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you. please stay safe and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. our u.s.-based customer service team can find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. jeff: the candido fund -- >> the kendeda fund, meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendeda fund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

more information at macfound.org . and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs news station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

. hello, everybody welcome to "amanpour and company." the head of the human rights joins me on resistance and accountability. >> how can i take part in the war without a win to wish? >> a report from kazakhstan where hundreds of thousands 0 f fled. the verdict on donald trump from the house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection just weeks before the midterms, how doeshi